In this edition of The Week in Spandex, we look at X-Men: Apocalypse, Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Ant-Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy, Avengers: Infinity War, The Defenders, Iron Fist, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Flash, Aquaman, Justice League, Batman, Supergirl, Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes – Justice League: Cosmic Clash, Powers and more…
…It wasn’t expected until the arrival of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but 20th Century Fox gave us an early Christmas present yesterday with the release of the first trailer for Bryan Singer’s latest X-Men offering X-Men: Apocalypse. The trailer focusses heavily on Oscar Isaac’s villain, as well as giving us a look at new X-Men such as Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Cylops (Tye Sheridan), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Angel (Ben Hardy) and Jubilee (Lana Condor). Check out the trailer here along with the first two posters here and here, and be sure to read the (mixed) thoughts on the trailer from our writing team in the latest Flickering Myth Reaction here…
…In other X-Men news, Shawn Ashmore has been talking about Iceman coming out as gay in the Marvel comic book universe, stating that he’d like to explore the storyline on the big screen: “Obviously the comics and movies are separate. I wonder what the transition would be because we’ve sort of established Bobby as having a love interest in Rogue and having a love interest in sort of Kitty Pryde, but I think it’d be really interesting,” states Ashmore. “I think it’d probably be the most interesting thing that could happen to Bobby in the films. If they decided to take the story that way, it’d be incredibly dramatic, it’d be an interesting storyline, and it would give Bobby a great character arc. I’d definitely be open to that, but again, I’m not sure if they want to take the character in that direction. I have no idea how they would play that out. I think it’d be very interesting…”
…Marvel Studios released a preview featurette for its Phase Three-launching Captain America: Civil War as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Two Collection Blu-ray set [see here], while we’ve also got a behind-the-scenes image featuring Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) [see here] and a batch of promotional art which asks ‘Whose Side Are You On?’ [see here]. Meanwhile, the latest episode of Flickering Myth TV looks at the top four moments from the Civil War trailer, and you can watch that here…
…Civil War co-director Anthony Russo has suggested that Spider-Man and Ant-Man will add some comic relief to proceedings in the Captain America threequel, while he’s also revealed that the wall-crawler was always part of their plans for the film, even prior to the deal with Sony: “From the second we had the idea to do the story of Civil War, Spider-Man was a part of the story. It was a very complicated business arrangement for Marvel Studios to be able to use Spider-Man from Sony. So, we were always told by Marvel ‘Don’t count on it, you may not get to use Spider-Man, so you better have a plan B’ And we were like ‘Okay, we get it, we have a plan B if don’t get Spider-Man; we’ll figure the movie out’. But the truth is, we never had a plan B. We only have envisioned the movie with Spider-Man. He was always a part of the story. It was very important to us to reintroduce the character…”
…On the subject of Spidey, Tom Holland has been speaking about the tone of the 2017 solo reboot, echoing previous comments that it will be a John Hughes-style take on the web-slinger: “It’s not The Dark Knight. One of the special things about what we’re going to try and create is that you’re going to see the biggest independent film ever. It’s not going to be an epic thing; it’s going to be a film surrounded by these incredible things, but that follows this boy and his life. Peter Parker is a favorite of many because everyone can relate to him, and we’re going to try to make everyone relate to our Peter Parker. And John Hughes is a perfect example of what we’re going to try and do…
…Shifting back to the MCU and this week gave us our first look at some concept art of Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Stephen Strange in November’s Doctor Strange movie thanks to a preview featurette for the film, which you can watch here…
…It’s been reported this week that two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett has entered talks with Marvel about a role in November 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, and while there’s been no word on a potential character, speculation has ranged from the likes of Hela and The Enchantress to Valkyrie…
…Marvel is pressing ahead with its plans for Ant-Man and the Wasp, with the writing team of Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari signing on to co-write the 2018 sequel alongside star Paul Rudd, with Adam McKay also contributing to the storyline. Barrer and Ferrari previously worked on the first Ant-Man movie with six months of uncredited rewrites to Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish’s original script…
..In other Ant-Man news, illustrator Andy Park has released another couple of pieces of concept art showing alternate designs for the villain Yellowjacket [see here], while Screen Junkies has also given the miniature hero’s first outing the Honest Trailer treatment [see here]…
…As well as the Civil War and Doctor Strange featurettes, the Phase Two Collection box set also offered up a couple of deleted scenes: check out Thor battling The Vision from Avengers: Age of Ultron here, along with a drunk Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy here…
…Once they’ve finished up with Civil War, Anthony and Joe Russo will be turning their attention to Avengers: Infinity War, and Anthony was asked this week about the chances of The Defenders – that’s Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist – appearing in the two-part superhero epic: “It’s complicated. When we start to serialize the telling of stories is difficult. You have to have a lot of control and focus on the course of history. The films are controlled by a group led by Kevin Feige, so they function as a unit. Other products, even if they are from Marvel, are controlled by others. There is the possibility of a crossover, but is more complicated. It is a smaller version of the problem that exists when thinking that Fox has the rights to certain characters, Sony and others. As storytellers, we only have control over what happens in Marvel movies, but everything is possible, Spider-Man (which has the rights held by Sony) was possible.” Check out the FMTV Geek News discussion on the possibility of The Defenders joining Infinity War here…
…It looks like we won’t have long to wait until we find out who’ll be playing our fourth Defender, with Marvel announcing that the Netflix series Iron Fist has found a showrunner in Scott Buck (Dexter). “Scott came in with a take on Iron Fist that quite simply knocked us off our feet,” said Executive Producer/Head of Marvel Television, Jeph Loeb. “We always look for the most creative minds in the field to help us bring our heroes to life, and with Scott we’ve found someone that can deliver yet another great series in the ongoing story of The Defenders…”
…In other Netflix news, a mega-blurry set photo from season two of Daredevil has (barely) given us our first look at Elodie Yung’s Elektra alongside Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock [see here], and on the Jessica Jones front we’ve got a VFX breakdown [see here], along with a Defenders TV Podcast review of episode six ‘AKA You’re a Winner’ [see here]…
…Over at ABC you can take a look at Danny Hale’s review of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season three’s winter finale ‘Maveth’ here, along with a promo for its midseason return and the upcoming second season of Agent Carter here. Oh, and we’ve also got a clip from the season two premiere of Agent Carter, which features Peggy (Hayley Atwell) and Jarvis (James D’Arcy); watch it here…
…Before we move on from the MCU, Marvel Studios’ two 2015 superhero offerings Ant-Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron have made it on to the twenty-film longlist for the Best Visual Effects Academy Award, although they do face some stiff competition for the five Oscar nomination spots…
…Click below to continue on for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, The Flash, Aquaman, Justice League, Batman, Supergirl, Gotham, The Flash, Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes – Justice League: Cosmic Clash, Powers and more…
